Excerpt: ...and conferred via email. That is facially insufficient. Further, defendant's counsel (Mr. Kensok) states that he made repeated requests to meet and confer even after the filing, but counsel would not do so. In reply (not a sworn declaration), plaintiff's counsel essentially verifies Kensok's assertion, stating that he insisted on a meeting at his office (not, for example, by telephone), and insisted that it be recorded. Besides being uncooperativ...

Excerpt: ...zation of the documents involved. The Court agrees with plaintiff's legal argument, and so plaintiff's motion for summary judgment is granted. This case arises from a line of credit originally extended by First Interstate Bank to Emery Bay Baseball, a now‐dissolved corporation (not sued here). Defendant Kaufman provided a personal guaranty for the line of credit. First Interstate Bank then merged into plaintiff Wells Fargo, which continued to l...

Excerpt: ...laintiff has filed a response expressly stating that she does not oppose Dr. Waechter's motion. It is accordingly granted. The Court notes that, given that plaintiff is apparently convinced that Dr. Waechter was not to blame and that she has no grounds for opposing summary judgment, plaintiff and her counsel should properly have voluntarily dismissed this case as against Waechter, or at least stipulated to such a dismissal. ...

Excerpt: ...grees, and so the motion is denied. Paragraphs 45‐47 of the complaint allege: An actual controversy has arisen and now exists between Plaintiffs and CONTRA COSTA SUPERIOR COURT MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT: 12 HEARING DATE: 07/20/18 ‐ 11 ‐ Defendant DCSD with respect to the DCSD's obligations under the Ordinance Code. Specifically, Plaintiffs contend that the DCSD has an obligation under the Ordinance Code to provide security to Diablo r...

Excerpt: ...es or can reasonably be construed to allege the following. The plaintiffs and the lead defendant, Gerald Knopoff, are siblings, the children of Jean and Leon Knopoff. When Leon died, the children were left $7 million in a trust. But when the trustee, defendant Gerald Knopoff, distributed the funds, each child received only $140,000. (SAC, ¶ 9.) Gerald told plaintiffs the loss of money in the Trust was “due to bad economy and that he had been n...

Excerpt: ...e argues that the arbitration agreement at issue is unconscionable, and accordingly cannot be enforced. Waiver The Court must consider six factors to determine whether BACR has waived any right it might have had to insist the present dispute with Saeteurn be arbitrated: (1) Whether [BACR's] actions are inconsistent with the right to arbitrate; (2) Whether the “litigation machinery has been substantially invoked” and the parties “were well i...

Excerpt: ...nder Code of Civil Procedure § 664.6. Nor did the subsequent Notice of Settlement of Entire Case, filed in June 2017, provide either any stipulation or any terms of settlement. At present, the case has not been dismissed, and defendant is in default. There is not, however, any judgment under § 664.6 or otherwise, nor any court order adopting or incorporating the terms of any settlement, nor any court document requiring defendant to pay any mone...

Excerpt: ... sought in the application. 3. The application is supported by no evidence or proof whatsoever. The standardized form contains no content other than checked boxes, and thus no factual assertions. It states that it relies on the Verified Complaint – but in fact the Complaint is not verified. 4. The unverified Complaint, even if it were under oath, is insufficient to establish a right to recover. Assuming that the application relates to the two v...

Excerpt: ...or Court pursuant to Labor Code § 98.2(a). The notices were initially rejected by the clerk's window because petitioners did not proffer any appeal bonds, as required by § 98.2(b) “[a]s a condition to filing an appeal”. Petitioners sought an ex parte order requiring the clerk to accept the notices of appeal, pointing out that under Code of Civil Procedure § 995.240 they were entitled to seek waiver of the bond requirement upon a showing of...

Excerpt: ...ve service, in this out of status of limitation case.” The Court has no confident idea exactly what defendant thinks she is asking for, or on what basis. As near as the Court can make out, she is again asking for relief from her prior default and the default judgment against her. That was already ruled on, and defendant presents even less semblance of grounds for any such relief now. This motion, whatever it is intended to be, is denied. ...

Excerpt: ...f defendants Kenneth Turnage and Kenneth R. Turnage II General Contractor, Inc. On September 24, 2016, plaintiff participated in an off‐site charity event, as a member of the wiffle ball team formed by his employer, Defendant Turnage. The wiffle ball team consisted of other employees and non‐employees. Plaintiff's participation was optional. The tournament ended at about 4:00 p.m. Later, after stopping home for a shower, plaintiff attended an...

Excerpt: ...r Estates Inc. joins the motion, but it does not appear in the papers that that entity has any direct ground for a disqualification motion, and it will be disregarded.) The Court must first comment on the chronology of all this. Black and Weston have represented plaintiff in this action since it was first filed in July 2016. Danilovich has been in the case for some time. Yet the topic of disqualification did not come up until new counsel for Dani...

Excerpt: ... Mahajan moves to expunge on the basis of § 405.32, providing for expungement if the court finds that the claimant has not established by a preponderance of the evidence the probable validity of the real property claim on which the lis pendens rests. “Unlike most other motions, when a motion to expunge is brought, the burden is on the party opposing the motion to show the existence of a real property claim. (See § 405.30.)” (Kirkeby v. Supe...

Excerpt: ... do not purport to show any such basis for relief. Third, the asserted basis for relief is that the parties settled the case as stated in a settlement agreement attached to the motion – but in fact nothing is attached to the motion, and no such settlement agreement is in the Court's file. Fourth, the dismissal filed by plaintiff in 2015 was absolute and unconditional, with no reservation of jurisdiction under Code of Civil Procedure § 664.6. T...

Excerpt: ...bstantive basis stated in the FAC for recovery of plaintiff's attorney fees. In opposition plaintiff argues that it may recover fees under Code of Civil Procedure § 1021.5 because it is pursuing a matter of public interest. Plaintiff does not elaborate on this assertion, however, and there is nothing in the FAC that could support it. Plaintiff's argument is that it is alleging fraud, and fraud is a bad thing, so therefore the allegations are wit...

Excerpt: ... response, plaintiff filed a Request for Dismissal, dismissing the entire action and all causes of action. The Court accepted the request and entered the dismissal on April 10, 2018. Plaintiff now files a motion to set aside the dismissal. He states no facts in support of this motion, however, nor does he argue any legal basis for his motion beyond quoting the California CONTRA COSTA SUPERIOR COURT MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT: 12 HEARING DATE...

Excerpt: ...motion on May 10, 2018, but the parties stipulated to hearing it concurrently with St. Mark Pittsburg's motion. (See Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Capital, LLC v. Danning, Gill, Diamond & Kollitz (2009) 178 Cal.App.4th 1290, 1301 [“The statutorily mandated minimum notice period for summary judgment may be waived by the parties…”].) The Court addresses both motions in this ruling. The motion of St. Mark Pittsburg is granted to the exte...

Excerpt: ...ses of action (and thus as to the complaint as a whole). On still other causes of action the Court denied the motion, but did not view those contentions as frivolous. Having secured a ruling that defendant's anti‐SLAPP motion was frivolous in part, plaintiffs now bring the present motion for attorney fees under subd. (c)(1) of the anti‐SLAPP statute, Code of Civil Procedure § 425.16(c)(1): “If the court finds that a special motion to strik...

Excerpt: ...istricting map by which they argue this could be done, and effectively ask the Court to adopt that map as mandatory. The motion is denied. Plaintiff's Complaint, and the Setting for This Motion Plaintiffs' complaint generally alleges that the District's current at‐large voting structure impermissibly dilutes the votes of racial minorities, namely Latinos and black people. The result of the District's at‐large voting system is that it deprives...

Excerpt: ...Disputed Material Fact Nos. 10, 16, 17, 26 and Plaintiff's' Additional Fact Nos. 36, 40, 42‐47.) In their Opposition, plaintiffs state they are “withdrawing and dismissing, without prejudice, as to Defendant Scott Clare,” the first, second, third, fourth, and seventh causes of action. No dismissal has been filed, however. The court therefore grants summary adjudication as to those causes of action as to defendant Scott Clare. Clare has made...

Excerpt: ...they complained about encroachments on their easement. (Disputed Material Fact Nos. 21, 31, 39; Additional Fact Nos. 10, 11, 12, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 30(2), 33, 35, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44.) (A numbering problem exists in the Coneys' Separate Statement of Additional Facts, with some numbers being repeated two or three times. The number 30(2) above refers to the second occurrence of the number 30.) Background The central issue on...

Excerpt: ...ed to comply with all the requirements in California Rules of Court, Rule 3.1324. The parties should comply with this rule, as well as all Rules of Court, at all times. There is “a policy of great liberality in permitting amendments to the complaint at any stage of the proceedings, up to and including trial [citations]…” (Magpali v. Farmers Group (1996) 48 Cal.App.4th 471, 487.) However, leave to amend can be denied where there is “‘ine...

Excerpt: .... The matter was continued a second time so that Defendant could respond to Plaintiffs' unauthorized supplemental opposition. Defendant failed to comply with California Rules of Court, Rule 3.1113(f). Tables of authorities and contents are generally useful (and required in memoranda over 10 pages) and would have been especially useful given Defendant's oversized brief. The Sequential Litigations Between These Parties Palma I: Palma sued Sabhlok f...

Excerpt: ... of habitability, assets a lengthy list of alleged unhealthy or unacceptable conditions in the building. These allegations have previously been made in two prior litigations between the same two parties. Merriouns asserted the same list of defects in her answer to the landlord's unlawful detainer case. She also asserted uninhabitability as her cause of action in a small claims case against the landlord. Both of those cases went to trial, and in b...

Excerpt: ...wn and operate a number of Pizza Hut restaurants. The present lawsuit is an insurance coverage dispute, concerning coverage for two employment lawsuits brought against plaintiffs. The Oregel suit was filed in this County in 2012 against Pacpizza. It asserted class‐action claims for alleged failures to reimburse employees' employment‐related expenses, in violation of Labor Code § 2802. It also included derivative causes of action under the UC...